I call you father
by Cloudwatchers
Summary: With Kurogane brushing with death, Fai just as close, and Sakura's body in another dimension, Syaoran cant help but look on at the people that now made up his family, and the one who held him up all the times he fell down.KxF and maybe SxS
1. Chapter 1

This is my fist Tsubasa fic, so you'll have to let me how I do on their characters, story placed right after the Celes deal.

Disclaimer:Do not own Any of these characters.

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The pain was incredible. During the fight he hadn't felt it, but now as the adrenaline fan out, he felt the pain in full. He could feel himself wobble, his vision blurring. He toppled over, landing painfully on his back, without the strength to feel the new shock of pain. But he knew this place, the sky, though filled with rain, was the one that had watched him grow up. The ground beneath them was the ground he had run across many times. He smiled at his to companions and allowed darkness to come. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the mage's and the kid's face's, shocked and tear filled, as he tightened his grip on the wizards wrist, unwilling to let him go.

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Fai and Syaoran watched, shocked as the man they had always seen as indestructible fall to the ground, pain etched into every feature. But the last thing they saw on the mans face before he lost consciousness, was the most surprising. He smiled at them, not the usual smirk or half grin, but a smile, small and sad but a smile. Then a single tear slid down his cheek as he looked at the sky and slowly slipped away.

They sat there for a while, while Syaoran awkwardly held a soulless Sakura, while trying to help Fai stunt the flow of blood the continued to stubbornly flow from Kurogane's side and shoulder, where his arm should have been. It was Syaoran that saw the riders come galloping down the plain. He said nothing, knowing Fai wouldn't hear him and to the fact that they couldn't do anything about it, they couldn't more Kurogane, nor could they move fast enough to get away. The riders easily and quickly surrounded them. Their leader, was a woman with tanned skin, approached them, angry look on her face.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

Syaoran remained silent, as did Fai, though he turned to face her.

"Tresspassing on her Imperial Majesty's lands without a pass or identification of allowance is punishable by death!"She said it like a challenge.

And still no response.

With an angry motion, she reached for the blade at her side.

"Talk!"

Another demand, this time enforced with a hiss of metal as she drew a thin sword from its sheath.

_This,_ inspired a reaction, though probably not the one she was expecting. Fai was immediately in a fighters crouch, and was beginning to bare his fangs at the woman, when Syaoran's cry quickly turned his attention back to the man on the ground.

"Kurogane-san!" That cry, he also noticed, caused the woman to back-peddle visibly.

The ninja was still bleeding, though the flow had stemmed a bit, it was still at an alarming rate. He was visibly paler. He was dying, his face in an odd sense peace, as though in acceptance of this fact.

The woman slid off her horse and stepped forward uncertainly, while astonished mutters swept through the group with her.

"K-kurogane?" she whispered, in an uncertain manner, as if she spoke to loud, he would disappear. She stepped forward tentatively, only to take a hurried step backward as Fai snarled viciously at her.

They stood frozen for a moment as the _"clip-clop"_of a horses trot echoed around them. The figure they saw upon the horse, was none other than Tomoyo. Fai's expression softened when he saw the young princess, remembering the help they had received from her double in another world. She rode up, the men around them parting for her to get through.

He looked up at her with a broken expression, and opened his mouth to talk.

She silenced him with a smile.

"He will not die, I promise." was all she said.

It was all she needed to say, Syaoran realized as he saw Fai's slim form slump, tension released, and exhaustion and relief swamping him. Defeated, he looked back up at the princess.

"Help him..." was all that slipped out between his pale lips before he too lost all strength to keep upright.

Syaoran lunged forward awkwardly, preventing the mage from giving himself a concussion. This seemed to give the woman he slowly recognized as Souma, the courage to come forward to help. She gave a few barked orders and Fai and Kurogane were quickly loaded on to horses and sent running back from the way they came. A man stepped forward and murmured a few gentle words he didn't understand. He took Syaoran's arm and helped him put Sakura up on a horse, the man quickly loaded Syaoran behind her and began to walk the two after their companions. The princess and her bodyguard walked on either side of them, as the rest of the troop circled them.

He couldn't help but be at peace for the first time in a long while, slumped over on a horse, clutching Sakuras soulless body feebly, soaked to the bone in the freezing rain, surrounded by a group of grim faces soldiers, though he could see the looks of worry some of them sent after the quickly disappearing shapes of the horses that bore Kurogane and Fai, as well as the ones that he himself and Sakura received. They cared, not falsely worried for them, lest they lose money in work they could do, like during the chess tournament and other various worlds they had been to, and Tomoyo's overall aura of kindness.

Suddenly it was all too much. He could feel his resolve slipping, and tears began to make tracks down his face until he was visibly sobbing. Had he been receiving heated glares filled with mistrust, he knew how to handle that, he could face his enemy's, he could face anger and hatred, but how do you face kindness, not having to do anything for it other than except it? He didn't know. Right now he just wanted to be safe, he wanted all of them to be safe. Mokona, safely curled up under his cloak, Kurogane and Fai now in the care of Tomoyo, he realized there was nothing else he could do but pray to whatever god that was listening to let them all be healed in the end.

And finally, as if a god had heard him, was sent into a deep, dreamless sleep.

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Well, thats it for now, please Review

Cloud


	2. Safety

Hi, and heres chapter 2, let me know on this one, I'm wondering if this is a little off

Disclaimer:Don't own Tsubasa chronicles

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Syaoran sat up with a panicked gasp, not knowing where he was or how he got there. A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder and carefully lowered him back down to the soft mattress he found himself laid out on, covered with a small pile of blankets. He looked over to the owner of the hand and was surprised to see Fai sitting next to him dressed in a clean yukata. The blond man attempted a smile, though it came out thin and broken.

"How are you Syaoran-kun?" he asked with a surprisingly calm voice.

"I'll be alright" he responded, sounding equally as calm as the other.

Fai's sharp blue eye caught his, "but not yet?"

Syaoran gave a half hearted smile, "Careful, or you'll start sounding like Ku-." He cut himself off, as memories flooded back, and a painful throbbing in his chest built up, as he remembered Kuroganes condition. Fai's face also grew several shades paler, though the smile managed to hold firm, though it was a bit more shaken.

"Where is he?" Syaoran asked with a hollow voice.

"Resting, Tomoyo-himes people took charge of him immedeatly, I've only been able to see him once, and that took a little…convincing." The tone of his voice made it quite obvious on how he "convinced" them to let him see the ninja.

Syaoran put a hand on the mages arm comfortingly, and despite the uncertainty he felt, said "He'll be alright, after all, who else could possibly take care of us like he does?"

He had meant it in a comforting way, hoping to help the wizard, but the man flinched away from his hand like he had been stung, and he saw his mistake.

The blond man still believed that all of this was his fault. As he turned away from the blond to look out the window, he said "You know what he would say to that, don't you" he looked back at the lithe man that had truly been, no matter how awkwardly, a mother figure for him, or at least his clone. He met Syaorans gaze only to look away.

"Yes", he uttered softly, "But in the end-"

"In the end, it was his choice, and his want to save you, to save all of us, whether we wanted it or not." Syaoran interrupted. "No matter what's happened to us Kurogane has had his share of heartbreak as well, after all he-" He stopped abruptly. He nearly had told Fai what he had seen through his other self, while in the library with the book of memories.

Fai now had his blue eye trained on him, tense and mildly suspicious, "After all he what?" he asked in a voice that seemed only mildly curious, though the tension in his face and body said other wise. Syaoran flinched, then mumbled an incoherent answer. Before Fai could press the matter, a gentle knock alerted them to a presence in the doorway. Both turned to look at the visitor, and saw that it was Soma, for this world.

She offered a tentative smile and said, "He's still unconscious, but you can come and see him now if you wish to." The words were barely out of her mouth, before both of them were on their feet, however unstable, ready to bolt out the door.

The smile turned into a girlish grin, "I'll take that as a yes." With that, she turned down the hall, motioning them to follow her. She led them down several turns and halls before stopping in front of a doorway. "Please excuse me," she mumbled before vanishing.

The two exchange a look before Fai stepped in ahead of Syaoran. The amber eyed teen held back, uncertain if he would be able to hold up looking at his mentor, afraid that somehow, he would no longer be the man he knew. He shook his head violently, trying to clear such thoughts from his head. Kurogane was Kurogane and he wouldn't-couldn't-be anything other than that.

He sucked in a deep breath, preparing to face the injuries inflicted on the ninja. He briefly wondered how had been calm enough in dealing with the wounds when they were fresh and still freely bleeding at an alarming rate. He stepped into the room, seeing Fai knelt at one side, he took position on the other and looked at the oddly serene look on the sleeping mans face, one never seen while he was aware of others looking.

Then he made the mistake at looking at the shoulder, and gave an involuntary shudder. There must have been incredible frustration in trying to bandage the shoulder, as the blood probably soaked bandages within minutes. The ones wrapped around him now were fairly clean. He was willing to bet that the blood had clotted enough to close the wound enough to stop the bleeding.

Kurogane's tanned skin was pale from bloodloss. Syaoran looked over him and felt a strange rush of emotion. He looked so…helpless. He could feel his heart twist in his chest. Kurogane was many things, but helpless was never one that would come to mind. Yet, here he was, skin pale, bandages wrapped all around his torso, his left arm, _missing_, at the mercy of others to care for him.

It just wasn't_right._ Kurogane was the one he always turned to, the only one who was determined to see him as his own person, not as Syaoran. He held on to Kuroane as a raft in his own turmoil and awkwardness.

Fai had been there for him, to a point, but he could always see it in his eyes, there was a fear there that he had to wonder if it would ever disappear. There was mistrust, and sometimes a irrational hate. Sakura had all but declared him a stranger, no matter how hard he tried to show her-and Fai- that he could be trusted and he wanted to help. The two of them became close, speaking to each other in conspiratorial whispers, when he or Kurogane were around, slowly driving them both off. He had nearly given up, but Kuroganes stubbornness and refusal to let them go had kept him focused and sane.

After Fai had stabbed the princess, Kurogane hadn't wasted a breath in telling the wizard that he wouldn't harm another soul with the sword, especially not himself. After that, he had even punched the mage when he had tried to dissuade them from going with him to Celes, as well as trying to pay the price in full to go there. There, he saved Syaoran and Sakura, earning himself what should have been a fatal blow, then he killed the king, cut off his arm in order to save Fai. So all in all he saved everyone, again.

Syaoran smiled mirthlessly, closing his eyes. If Kurogane hadn't been with them at all on this journey, all of them would have been dead a long time ago. He snorted. And they definitely would have died on Celes. But they hadn't. They avoided death again, due to the presence of this one man. Their protector.

He opened his eyes to look again at Kurogane, and flinched.

He wanted this to all just to _go away._

It shouldn't have happened this way. Sakura should still be smiling, Fai should still have both eyes, Kurogane should be well and whole. It was all wrong. Syaoran should be here, not him, some mockery of a child, who had spent the last 8 or so years living in a tube, sealed by magic, kept alive only by his little niche in another's mind, watching his copy's life unfold, a life he would, and could never have.

He was surprised at the feel of a gentle hand brushing his face. He looked up into a cerulean blue eye, and saw an understanding there...and something else he couldn't identify, something he wasn't sure he could.

"You shouldn't cry, Syaoran-kun..."

Startled he put a hand to his cheek, surprised to find a wetness there. He looked back at Fai.

"Sorry..." He mumbled. It wasn't as if he truly had anything to cry for, did he?

A little laugh, one he hadn't ever head for himself. Fai smiled at him.

"Now now, no need to be sorry, but just think what Kuro-pii would say." He blinked. Had Fai honestly used one of his ridiculous nick names? Kami, please say he did. Fai smile widened, and for once, it wasn't hiding anything. He couldn't help but give a small smile in return.

He wavered as suddenly, he was very tired, his vision threatening to cloud over. Fai noticed with sharp look.

"Syaoran-kun should go back to sleep..."

Syaoran shook his head.

"I don't want to leave him..."

Fai looked him over before an enlightened spark came to his eye. "Well then, you'll just have to sleep in here."

"But-" "Its quite alright Syaoran-kun, let Fai-mommy take car of things."

That alone was enough to make any coherent thought come to a screeching halt. He blinked again, words not quite processing correctly. And suddenly, Fai was setting him down on a soft blanket, within easy reach of Kurogane, as well as Fai, who was settling down between the two.

Fai met his confused gaze, with a smile, that almost brought back the old, cheerful, carefree Fai. "Don't worry Syaoran-kun, I'll take care of him, you sleep," his smile became mischievous, "After all, aren't mommies supposed to take care of daddies and their kids?"

A startled laugh found its way out of his throat. Then, he relaxed, watching Fai, and finally, with a feeling of security, and the possibility, that everything just might be okay, he began to nod off.

But as he slowly slipped into sleep, he heard a soft voice say,

_ "After all, I have a lot to make up to you two... more than you could ever know...its the very least I can do, to make sure you can sleep in peace..." _

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there we have it, please review, constructive critique is welcome

_Cloud_


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